


Broken

by ConfessionForAnotherTime



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/F, Gore, Implied Noncon, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-11
Updated: 2014-08-11
Packaged: 2018-02-12 17:24:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2118414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ConfessionForAnotherTime/pseuds/ConfessionForAnotherTime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As the clone bared her teeth, Shepard knew how far she would fall.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Broken

“What are you doing? Let us go!” Quinn yelled.

The clone had caught Shepard and Liara off guard as they swept through the archives. Brooks managed to catch Quinn in the shoulder, immobilizing her ability to shoot. Liara saw the clone from the side, and in a blur, the cropped scarlet hair deceived her. The snarl on the clone’s face gave away her true intent, but Liara reached for her Eagle too late as the clone’s fist collided with the side of her face. Quinn saw Liara crumple to the floor. The amount of rage boiling in her was only ebbed at by the blood seeping out of the hole in her shoulder. 

“Well, well,” the clone mused, kicking the back of Shepard’s knees, bringing her to the floor, “looks like I get to stop you myself.”

“It’s going to take more than you to stop me,” Shepard snapped, looking up at ‘herself’.

“Is it?” the clone snarled back, plunging a rigid digit into the bullet hole, eliciting a hiss and a groan from Quinn, “because it seems that I can pretty easily.”

The clone looked over at Liara as she stirred, a purple mark growing where she had been struck. 

“You’ve given away too many weaknesses without saying a word, Shepard. I will delight in exploiting them,” the clone sneered, picking Liara up by the throat and pinning her to a wall, “so many weaknesses indeed.”

The look of horror on Liara’s face reached Shepard in time for her to see the clone forcefully kiss Liara, plunging her tongue into her mouth. Liara fought the kiss, but the clone used her free hand to press on Liara’s cheeks to keep her mouth open as she nibbled on her lips. As their mouths parted, the clone’s hand trailed down her frame, cupping one of Liara’s breasts and continuing down, tracing the curve of her hip.

“She tastes like candy,” the clone remarked, licking her lips and giving Liara’s throat a squeeze, “come on, I have more in store for you.”

“Make a move and you’re dead,” Brooks said coldly as she pushed her pistol into Quinn’s cheek. The gun being swung and colliding with the back of her head was the last thing Shepard remembered as she was knocked unconscious. 

 

When Quinn regained consciousness, the blackness of the room enveloped her. She found her hand cuffed behind her uncomfortably. This discomfort was heightened by the dull ache in her shoulder from the bullet that she assumed was still lodged there. It didn’t help that the cuffs were bolted to the chair behind her. Each of her legs were shackled to the chair as well, making any kind of escape nearly impossible.

Several minutes passed because Quinn heard the crackle of a speaker and a dim fluorescent light flickered on.

“Sleep well, Shepard?” Brooks asked through the speaker, “your girlfriend has been quite vocal all morning, but it seems she’s dissolved into sobs now. Pity.”

“What are you doing to her?” Shepard growled.

“A little of this and that,” the clone chimed in, “her face is a lovely shade of purple now though. Have you realized she has the most delicious screams? Probably not, considering you were out for the last several hours.” 

“You’re sick,” Quinn spat at the speaker.

“If you only knew. Here, Liara wants to talk to you.”

Shepard waited a moment before hearing a crackle that could have been the speaker acting up until she realized that it was something electrical on the other end. The crackle was punctuated with a scream from Liara. As the minutes passed and the screaming turned to crying, praying, begging for it to cease, Shepard found herself looking down at her knees, tears falling into her lap. Please stop hurting her. Please. Anything. Hurt me instead, she thought. Liara’s screams turned to whimpers and sobs. A fresh scream permeated the air.

“Seems she doesn’t like knives on her face,” the clone stated, like she was discussing the weather. Shepard didn’t look up as a door behind her clicked open. The clone’s weathered hands were stained with a deep blue as she gripped Shepard’s face, squeezing her lips and cheeks together. 

“By the way, her lips may taste like candy, but the rest of her is like tasting eternity. She’s never going to be able to look at you without thinking of me ever again,” the clone told her, searching her expression for the reaction she desired.

The clone’s fingers moved so fast from her face that Shepard barely registered them in her mouth until after she tasted something faint and familiar. It was enough to send her into a rage, her teeth clamping down on the two digits. The clone howled as blood trickled freely out of Quinn’s mouth. The clone’s other fist collided with Shepard’s cheek, freeing her fingers. She examined them, noting that bone was exposed. 

“Liara will pay for that,” she hissed, cradling her mangled hand, “Brooks, keep the speaker on. I want her to hear this.”

Hours passed and Shepard endured more of Liara’s choked and pained cries as she was subjected to each kind of torture thought up by the sadistic creature that shared her face. Shepard wished she could help her. She wished she could turn off her ears. She wished it were her enduring said pains instead of her lover. All of her wishes were in vain as she continued to listen to Liara cry out for her. Her pleads were unheeded and often laughed at by the clone before subjecting her to more pain and suffering. Shepard noted that the sobbing increased each time that the screams and cries sounded vaguely sexual, hoping that she wasn’t being subjected to what she was certain was happening. Hours passed and in time, Liara screamed herself hoarse, hoping that whatever deity that she happened to pray to would come to her rescue.

“I WISH I COULD PROTECT YOU, LIARA,” Shepard screamed into the speaker, not expecting it to pick up her cry.

“Shepard?” was Liara’s weak reply, “Are you there?”

“Liara, I’m here baby. What have they done to you?”

“Enough. I can’t see. I hurt all over. ALL over.”

Shepard noted the emphasis and her anger boiled anew as she remembered the scent on the clone’s now shredded fingers. Serves the bitch right.

The clone returned to Shepard’s room, her hand bandaged. She was accompanied by two men in full armor, their face obstructed. 

“I would say unshackle her and have her walk into the other room, but that allows for too much potential risk on our part. Drag her chair into the asari’s room,” she said, motioning for them to move.

The two men grabbed the back of the chair and at a slant, pulled her into a room just as dimly lit as the previous one. Neither man was careful with Shepard as they dragged her along. One of the men left dragging her to assist in cleaning of bloodied implements, as the other overcompensated for his partner’s leave. As he stopped pulling her along, she tilted, causing her and the chair to fall on its side. The weight of the metal combined with the weight of her body caused her to cry out as the chair back came down on her forearm. Her neck went slack after her head hit the floor, disorienting her and causing further confusion as her cheek landed in something wet. Pulling her head up, she saw a dark indigo puddle on the floor below her face.

Blood. Her eyes widened. Liara’s blood.

Shepard looked up and while not surprised, she was still pained by seeing her lover battered and broken. The faint hum of the biotic barrier that confined Liara to the bonds that held her arms and legs apart permeated Shepard’s senses. 

“Shepard,” Liara rasped, “help me.”

“I’ll do anything I can, love. I love you no matter what,” Shepard told her, trying to reassure herself just as much as Liara.

“I love you, too,” Liara replied weakly.

“What does this do for you?” Shepard hissed at the clone.

“I want to push you, to break you,” the clone said, content in her position, “it’s so easy, too, considering your attachment to this one.”

The clone closed in one Liara, licking her lips and flattening her tongue as she traced her cheek with the flat muscle. Disgust flashed on Liara’s face, mirroring Shepard’s own disgust, as she licked the blood from her lips and swung, open palmed, at the freshly licked cheek. The crack of her hand on the wet flesh was met with a grunt from Liara. 

“Even her blood is sweet,” the clone purred, eliciting a chuckle out of Brooks as she watched from the shadowed corner. Shepard gritted her teeth at the exchange, wishing she could make the clone pay.

“Here I wanted more,” the clone remarked slyly, landing a solid punch on Liara’s other cheek, receiving another grunt, “it’s no fun if you don’t scream.”

Blow after blow landed on Liara’s prone form. Minutes passed and with each hit, she found herself losing the ability to hold herself up. Her slackened limbs hung in her bonds, causing the metal cuffs to dig into her already abused skin more. With each hit that landed on her face, her ribs, her stomach, choked what little life she had left coursing through her. Her previously broken ribs were closing in on her lungs, making it harder to breathe and each successful connection to her face chipped away at what little consciousness she had left.

“Stop it! You’re killing her!” Shepard pleaded, her voice cracking as the last shreds of hope left her.

“That’s kind of the point, Shepard,” the clone replied with a sneer, “since you stole the glory from me by being the clone picked, I’ll take her away from you.”

A succession of three more punches to Liara’s head. Shepard watched helplessly as she heard bone give way slightly, more blood falling onto the floor. Liara’s skin glittered with the shine of fresh blood.

“Liara, baby, I love you,” Shepard cried out, desperation in her voice. 

“I…I…” Liara trailed off.

“No baby. Don’t talk. We’ll get out of here. You’ll be okay. Just hold on,” Shepard continued, unsure of who she was trying to convince more.

“We’ll get you to Chakwas, and she’ll fix you. Once you’re able to be out of the infirmary, I’ll keep you in my cabin and feed you myself. Please just hold on,” Shepard pleaded.

A faint smile crossed Liara’s lips.

“Shepard, I love you,” Liara croaked out, “but I’m not going to last much longer.”

“Yes you are. You have to. You’re supposed to live for many more years. There are still ruins to study. There are so many things we haven’t had a chance to do,” Shepard continued, her panic rising to the surface.

“No, Quinn, my time is almost out,” Liara explained, resigned to her fate.

“No! It isn’t, Liara, no!” Shepard yelled, blinking away tears as she struggled against her bonds, “we have so much left. What about our little blue…”

“No. Another life maybe. Our souls will find each other again. Just not in this life,” Liara gasped with a sigh, her own tears falling across her face.

“What about this one? I don’t want to lose you,” Shepard pleaded again, her voice uneven.

“I lost you for a short time. We’ll find a way back, Shepard, just not now. I’ll find you on the next go around…”

“Please don’t let go, Liara. I need you. I’m lost without you.”

“I was lost without you, too. I just wish we had more…”

“Liara?”

Her question was met with silence.

“Liara?” Shepard asked again, panic rising further as the tears continued to fall.

Shepard attempted to scoot on her side to the containment field. She looked up to see Liara’s head tilted forward, as slack as her features.

“Liara! Please no! Come back! Don’t leave me here without you. I need you…”

“That was all very touching,” the clone sneered sarcastically, miming wiping away a tear.

“You’re a monster,” Shepard growled between sobs.

“Just remember where I came from,” the clone growled back, stepping forward to cradle Liara’s face and kiss the blood from her still-warm lips, “I’m part of you.”

The clone nodded and the mercenaries knocked Shepard behind the head, rendering her unconscious.

 

When Shepard woke, she had been freed, her body lying next to Liara’s broken one. She held her close, and using her omni-tool, she called out.

“Joker, I need pick up,” Shepard requested as she blinked tears away, kissing Liara’s forehead, “Liara and I… she…”

“Commander, is she okay?”

“No. Send someone down to help me carry her… body.”

The silence that met her on the line for those few moments was deafening.

“Roger that.”


End file.
